The Electrophysical Forum aims to provide an interactive platform for questions, comments, discussion and opinion related to the use of Electro Physical modalities in therapy. It is supported by an Internationally
renowned expert panel and a broad sphere of clinicians, researchers, educators and students. Active participation is welcomed.

What are the risks of an Esthetician who wears hearing devices during electrotherapy?

I am a student studying to be an Esthetician. I wear Phonak’s titanium hearing aid devices that are battery operated. Im wondering what long-term/short-term effects that would have on my health if I decided to keep them in while Im preforming a service . I need to be able to hear my client.

In agreement with Cliff - the most obvious modalities that would potentially cause a problem are those lined with Pulsed Magnetic or Radio Frequency energies - such as shortwave, pulsed shortwave, microwave, PEMF etc. We would normally suggest that a patient receiving these treatments remove their hearing aid - but clearly if you are the therapist, that is problematic. Whilst this would be the general guidance, it is certainly true that different hearing aids respond very differently to these energies - some play up a lot whilst others appear to be relatively stable and do not cause a problem - rule of thumb is that the more 'modern' the hearing aid, the less problematic - but I am pretty sure that there are some modern hearing aids which still misbehave (the problem by the way is that you, as a user of the hearing aid, might experience some high pitched and loud noise - rather than anything else). Nobody that I am aware of has run any comprehensive tests in recent years - or not that I have seen

Dear Marisa
The only modalities that I can think of that may have an adverse effect on your hearing aids ( but I cannot be sure) are PEME and SWD, although there are better qualified people in the panel who will hopefully clarify this for you
Cliff

Dear Marisa
The only modalities that I can think of that may have an adverse effect on your hearing aids ( but I cannot be sure) are PEME and SWD, although there are better qualified people in the panel who will hopefully clarify this for you
Cliff